
■ ' : i 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap.: Copyright No.. — 

Shelf....L(L.l^ii 

.L4 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 






CLAIMS OF GREEK 



BY 



PROFESSOR LEES 



UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 





iAN S7l89f5 






SYRACUSE, N. Y. 

C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 

1895 



Copyright, 1895, by C. W. Bardeen 






THE CLAIMS OF GEEEK 



This is no new question tliat is brought before us for discussion. 
The friends of the humanities have waged many a battle against 
this foe, for he is no warrior of tender years. Among the Greeks 
of old we find the rivalry between music and gymnastics, between 
the culture gained under the superintendence of the Muses and 
the physical training of the body exclusively. One side was in 
favor of producing Spartans — fighters ; the other side, Athenians 
— thinkers. At Kome we find Cicero raising his voice — and he 
could raise it — against the enemies of philosophy and letters. To- 
day the same question has been raised, the same contest renewed, 
under somewhat different circumstances. It is no longer gymnas- 
tics versus the cultivation of the Muses, as in Greece ; nor physical 
prowess opposed to philosophy and letters, as at Rome ; but now it 
is applied science and technical training versus liberal culture and 
sound education. If we examine the question carefully we shall 
find that it is a struggle between the champions of mind and those 
of matter ; between the study of soul and that of soil. How often, 
to the shame of both contestants, has the struggle became positive- 
ly degrading ! And what has been going on during this contest ? 
That delicate thing — that marvellous thing — the young human 
mind, has been dragged here, pulled there, by these contestants 
who call themselves educators, as if they were so many starving 
dogs and this human mind a bone. It is to our kind old teacher 
that we turn again, as we must so often do, to settle for us this worse 
than school-boy quarrel. It is to Athens, " the source of art and 
cultured thought," the teacher of her myriad youths to-day in 
every clime, that we appeal in our dispute. Athens in her golden 
days trained her native youths, as few since then have been trained, 
by judiciously combining the studies of the Muses — the culture of 
the mind — with the health-giving and vigor-renewing gymnastics — 
the training of the body. Let us then take home to our hearts 
this lesson of our teacher. Let us not hereafter, each from his 
pwn separa^te booth, be crying out our wares, to the distractioi\ 

(3) 



4 THE CLAIMS OF GEEEK 

of every innocent youth wlio may approach ; but let us join in 
erecting a new temple of learning where the young votary may 
enter, worship, and pass forth an educated man. It was the apos- 
tate emperor Julian who excluded the classic writers from the 
christian schools that he might exclude higher learning and influ- 
ence from their midst. We must not imitate him ; for, if we do, 
we may be compelled to cry out at last, as he did : " Thou hast de- 
stroyed me, Mithras ! " Let us come to that mutual under- 
standing which the eminent scientist Tjndall longed for when he 
said : " Is there no mind in England large enough to see the value 
of both classics and science and to secure for each fair play ? Let 
us unsphere the spirit of Plato, listen to the noble music of the 
past, and still honor the genius of our own time." Surely the 
mind that would say him nay is narrow and blighted, and not 
one that is " full-orbed " by the study of the classics and rounded 
off by what our German brethren call the " science of antiquity ". 
It has not drunk from that living spring which pre-eminently is 
called liberal education. 

What is meant by education ? Unfortunately the Pythian ora- 
cle has not yet given us an answer with which every one is satis- 
fied. To this riddle no profound Oedipus has ventured an answer 
to which all agree. Why is this ? It is because we do not distin- 
guish sharply between education and instruction. Education is 
the natural and healthy development of man's God-given powers, 
but instruction famishes only the means and mechanical appli- 
ances. The instructed man must not be confounded with the edu- 
cated man, as is so often done at the present time. The champi- 
ons of short-cuts, modern subjects wholly, narrow specialization, 
lightning express courses, confuse the instructed man with the 
educated man. The mere acquisition of facts is confounded by 
them with the " plastic process of assimilation" of facts, which 
alone is true education. Dr. Bernard once said : " The object of 
education is to form and not to inform the mind." In such a 
great work as this, time is an essential element and " short cuts " 
are impossible. A college education — and this should mean a lib- 
erel education — should awaken, arouse, exercise, develop all the 
intellectual faculties of the student. It should make the student 
think and lead him to aspire. The Spartans frowned on all exer- 
cises that did not point directly to eflSciency in battle. Contrast 
their course of instruction with that of the Athenians and behold 
the results as marked by the number of milestones passed by each 
of the two cities in the world^s march of progress. The Spartans 



THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 5 

were '' instructed " in the '^ practical" school ; the Athenians 
were " educated " in the school of liberal culture. In the clear 
light of history we cannot hesitate for a moment in our choice of 
the two nations and their methods ; yet in weakness of judgment 
and short-sighted vision so many of to-day follow the example of 
the Spartans and frown on all studies that do not prepare directly 
for the so-called '' work of life ". But what, may we ask, is the 
" work of life " ? This is the great question. Did the Spartans 
know what is the " work of life " ? If they did then man is but 
a machine — be that a Gatling gun or a minute. The weakness of 
the Spartans is the weakness of many modern men and institu- 
tutions. There is too intense a desire for material well-being and 
self-advancement, cost what it may to others, which is dwarfing 
and narrowing the minds of many. No subject is worthy of study, 
in their opinion, if they cannot read the sordid dollar sign between 
the lines. The goddess of liberty is their ideal, but she must be 
stamped upon the precious metal. It is manifestly our duty to 
counteract such tendencies, and to prove to those who come to 
our halls of learning that there is a " work of life" far higher and 
nobler than merely making ourselves comfortable and raising our- 
selves a notch or two in the social scale. We must present to them 
the high ideal of the Greek writer who says ''The best fruit of life 
is an honest heart and labor for the good of fellon^-man." When 
we choose studies which we think will prepare us for the " work 
of life " let us first be sure that we have the right idea of our 
''work of life ". 

We have heard so much about letting the classics go. But that 
is not the question. We ought rather to ask. Will they let us go ? 
We cannot tear ourselves from Greece and Eome if we wish. The 
present strikes its roots deep into the soil of the past and draws its 
nourishment therefrom. We could not have a family quarrel and 
separate from our "loftier brothers of antiquity "if we would. 
The best minds of to-day, they who are really competent to judge 
of the question, are becoming more and more united in saying, 
"We would not if Ave could." The teachers in the schools of the 
east tell us that statistics prove the study of Greek is on the in- 
crease ; that a greater number take it every year. There they are 
recognizing as never "before the paramount importance of classics 
as the foundation for any line of intellectual activity. The classic 
languages, literatures, histories, are the life of our life ; the very 
blood of our blood. Athens is far more to us than Theseus ever 
was to her. Eome means far more to us than Komulus did to th? 



6 THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 

once proud mistress of the world. And yet they would not giye 
up their Theseus or their Eomulus, because that would destroy the 
unity of their national life. Shall we ruthlessly endeavor to spoil 
the unity of our intellectual life by saying " we will discard the 
classics " ? Not until we can forcibly separate the present for the 
past is it possible to draw out of our intellectual life the fibres woven 
into it by the " loom of time ". This it is that makes the classics 
an indispensable necessity in all of our higher education. We read 
in the Marchen of G-oethe how the will-o'-the-wisps " with their 
pointed tongues licked the gold veins out of the giant figure, and 
at last, when the smallest filaments were eaten out, the image fell.'' 
It requires no great effort to see that a similar fate would soon 
overtake our higher education if the golden threads of the classics 
were severed. Mr. John Kennedy, superintendent of schools of 
Batavia, !N". Y., is no idle dreamer or visionary when he says " If 
G-reek goes the college goes." The Greeks have not only pointed 
out the course for us but they have dug the channels of our thought 
and intellectual activity. We follow Greek lines in all of our litera- 
ture. Our architecture is based on Greek models. We attempt to 
get as near to Greece as we can. Why was the " White City " such 
a splendid success last year ? Because Phidias and Praxiteles were 
the real architects who directed the work and imparted some of 
their genius to our modern men. Our political life takes us back 
at every turn to Greece. Our very language is becoming more and 
more Greek every day and it will continue to do so. They whose 
vision is so narrow, whose education is so stunted, that they have 
no adequate appreciation of the importance of these facts to the 
true student, have no right to speak of the inutility of Greek or of 
dropping Greek from the curriculum. Europe did stop the study 
of Greek once and what was the result ? The dark ages came, 
when the barbarian groped in his hovel built on the mosaics and 
between the columns of a great and past civilization. But when 
the Greeks were driven out of Constantinople they went west and 
taught the language of their books. This was the lamp of Aladdin 
that dispelled the intellectual darkness and gloom of • centuries. 
These poor earthworms, these clods, these western Goths, drank of 
the nectar from the Pierian spring and lo 1 they became gods — in- 
tellectual gods. They claimed their birthright as ''heirs of all the 
ages " and came into possession of their inheritance. The world 
has learned too well its bitter lesson ' to deliberately knock out the 
very keystone from the arch that spans its portal of learning. 
^e have heard a great deal of the past, not so much now a§ 



THE CLAIMS OF GKEEK 7 

formerly, about the so-called '^dead" languages. They who used 
that term are careful not to modify it as it should be. They are 
" dead " to those who cannot or will not read them, but not dead 
to those who have entered into the spirit of classical masterpieces. 
If you call them " dead " then you must call Chaucer dead, Milton 
dead, Browning dead, for you have to read their writings now to 
know the poet's soul. Dr. W. T. Harris, United States Commis- 
sioner of Education, whose authority as a leader in education can- 
not be questioned, says : ** In the light of the doctrine of evolution 
which is beginning to prevail in natural science, and will soon pre- 
vail in all education, Greek and Latin are not dead languages." 
No language is dead that conveys to us thoughts that are held as 
a noble heritage of the past which men will not suifer to be lost. 
Such a language is crystallized into a life that is incapable of death. 
It is impossible to apply the term " dead" to Greek, for that has 
been a living spoken language, with an unbroken continuity, for 
over three thousand years. There is no greater change in the 
Greek language of Demosthenes and Plato compared with that of 
to-day than there is in the language of Chaucer compared with 
that of our own time. " Dead " is nothing but a catchword. 

Another catchword that has done much mischief is the term 
"compulsory". They who say ''Away with compulsory Greek" 
are very careful not to finish their sentence for that would destroy 
the force of their favorite term. ''Compulsory " attached to a 
thing gives it a hateful look. But if the writer is not mistaken, 
even our ABC's were learned by very many of us under some com- 
pulsion. The fear of the birch has induced many a lad to learn a 
les3on. Should the lesson therefore not have been given by the 
teacher nor learned by the pupil ? In fact the most of human ac- 
tions are to a great extent compulsory in one form or another. If 
we should do nothing that is in the least degree compulsory we 
should soon be in a far worse condition than the companions of 
Odysseus after they had eaten of the lotus. But suppose we could 
do away with "compulsory" Greek. What follows? We must 
substitute compulsory something else, — either compulsory German, 
or compulsory French, or compulsory science, and hence the term 
means nothing. 

Over the entrance of the temple of Apollo at Delphi were in- 
scribed the words rv(3etdsavr6v (know thyself). This was the 
mainspring of Greek ethical teaching. This is the true end of all 
liberal education in the highest sense of the term. Liberal educa- 
tion however must be sharply distinguished from technical educa- 



8 THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 

tion. The former broadens the man and puts him in sympathetic 
touch with his fellow men wherever they may be or whenever they 
may have been. As its name implies it make a free man of him. 
The latter narrows him down to some special calling. It teaches 
him a trade. It makes him a machine whose wheels will turn if 
you drop the right piece of money in the slot. But it is not a col- 
lege education. Both are useful — both are necessary — but they 
must not be confounded as they so often are by nearsighted persons. 
The liberal education — the college education — must precede the 
technical, else you will find the machine getting the better of the 
man. You must broaden his vision and let him view the world^s 
landscape before he concentrates his fixed gaze upon some definite 
point. I have known students who thought the sum total of all 
excellencies was bounded on the north by South Dakota, on the 
east by Iowa, on the south by Kansas, and on the west by Colorado. 
I have watched with great interest the same students as their eyes 
were opened, their sympathies enlarged, their judgment broadened, 
and that too during a three months trip to Europe. It is a similar 
influence which the study of the classics exerts upon the intellectual 
life of the student. The classics take the student on a trip abroad ; 
they lay his foundation on a broad and firm basis, before he begins 
to build his superstructure. That course of study which will best 
enable a man to know himself and his environment is undoubtedly 
the course above all others which constitutes a liberal education. The 
broader and more extended a mane's knowledge of the past, of the 
thoughts and feelings and purposes of the best of mankind, the 
better will he know his environment and his relations to his fellow- 
man, and he will have a more perfect knowledge of himself. We 
have all of us heard of the individual who was found in front of a 
fence trying to lift himself over by pulling at his boot-straps. 
Something like this occurs when a young man tries to become 
broadly and liberally educated by pursuing the study of nothing 
but " moderns ". He goes round and round in a narrow circle 
and wonders why his vision is so narrow, why the landscape has 
so often the same appearance, why he never seems to approach 
nearer his ideal of a really educated man. In all higher education 
we stand — we must stand — upon the shoulders of the ancients. 
The firmer and more erect we take that stand the wider and more 
comprehensive will be our view of life and of the work of life. 

It has never been questioned by those who are competent to 
judge that Greek as an instrument of intellectual and linguistic 
training stands unequalled among our cognate languages. Lin- 



THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 9 

guistic training is justly considered a prime requisite of sound 
education. The study of the Greek language, because it is univer- 
sally acknowledged to be the most perfect language that we have, 
is well fitted to occupy a crowning position in an education that 
has for its aim the attainment of liberal culture. If there is any- 
thing in which the Greek language stands pre-eminent it is in 
exactness of thought and perfect expression. The audience that 
would hiss an actor off the stage if a word was mispronounced ; the 
assembly so critical that their leading orator would take months in 
preparing his speech : these men would have nothing short of per- 
fection. A language that has words to mark the inflection of the 
voice, to denote the curl of the scornful lip ; that has particles 
which open to the student^s mind a new world of thought and 
meaning ; that has unmatched facility of combination and an 
infinite grace, must surely test the student to the utmost and lead 
him on in his efforts to master and translate it into his mother 
tongue. In this study the student's memory is strengthened, his 
English vocabulary enriched, his apprehension stimulated, his 
judgment ripened ; and, what is of so much importance to-day with 
so many undigested scraps of knowledge, he acquires the habit of 
close and diligent application. The fond parent of a classical 
student in the University of Nebraska told me last year that when 
his son studied his Greek lesson he locked himself in his room and 
gave strict orders not to be molested for two hours. That is as 
great a defence of Greek as I can make. Those two hours of close 
and intense application each day developed more brain and think- 
ing power in that young man than three or four times as much 
time spent in reading as students so often do, when they combine 
a page of the author with the equivalent of several pages in irrel- 
evant talk with a room-mate or friend. 

It is not along the line of intellectual training or mental gym- 
nastics that the opponents of Greek dare assail its battlements. 
They attack it on the so-called " useful " side. They say that the 
student can get "about " or ''nearly" as good training in other 
lines besides securing a certain amount of " useful " knowledge 
which is not to be gained from the stud^ of Greek. This latter 
point is sometimes granted them by certain individuals, but we do 
not propose to make any such cowardly surrender nor even run up 
the white fiag of truce. We propose to meet them on the field of 
their own choice. 

Greek claims a " useful " and very necessary place in any scheme 
of liberal education which considers the study of language, litera- 



10 THE CLAIMS OF G-EEEK 

ture, and history of prime importance. It is in the study of Greek 
that we learn how men first began systematic thinking. In its 
literature we can see how all the forms of modern literatures were 
gradually unfolded from the embryo state of that of full maturity, 
from crude beginnings to polished perfection. In literature we 
have not become what we are through ourselves. We are the off- 
spring of the G-reeks. As Dr. Harris says, " We have borrowed 
their civilization and their literature." The Greek literature is 
the fountain head of epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry; it is the 
norm of prose writings, of history, oratory, philosophy. It is in 
the study of this language and literature that we can see how a 
people with no literature, no models, succeed in developing and 
bringing to a perfection that has never been surpassed, rarely if 
ever equalled, all the various branches of literature as we of to- 
day know them. It is this fact that secured for the Greek the 
position of teacher of Rome and schoolmaster of modern Europe. 
The nation of to-day that is acknowledged by all to be the facile 
princeps in higher university education is Germany. She has 
built her magnificent temple of learning upon Greek foundation. 
It is not strange that the language and literature of Greece should 
so early reach perfection and yield such rich results, for nature 
often brings forth her richest harvest from a virgin soil. The 
Greeks lived, most fortunately for them, in all the freshness of 
life's morning when the mists had risen and the sky was clear. 
Consequently we find in their writings a certain vividness, frank- 
ness, earnestness, not shared by other literatures, which appeals 
with special force to the young mind eager to enter upon its intel- 
lectual life. The Greek student finds the earliest literature pos- 
sessing all the simplicity of that early age, the freshness of the 
childhood of the world. He finds that Homer is spontaneous, di- 
rect, noble, and yet plain withal ; that he can put himself with 
equal ease in touch with every phase and changing mood of human 
life, and yet not lose a particle of that noble dignity which per- 
vades the whole. But how is it with the Latin and English epics ? 
Instead of being spontaneous, they are frequently learnedly allu- 
sive and almost one-haM is lost if the reader has not a knowledge 
of the Homeric poems which both Vergil and Milton studied care- 
fully. If nothing else would repay us for a careful and painstak- 
ing study of Greek surely one masterpiece of the Athenian drama- 
tists contains sufficient reward. It has been well said that a student 
who has advanced far enough in his study of Greek — the sopho- 
more year in the University of Nebraska — to read intelligently one 



THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 11 

of the masterpieces of Aischylos or Sophokles has gained a clearer 
knowledge of the ancient world, has entered more fully into its 
spirit, can better understand the origin and development of the 
drama, than he could by reading a dozen volumes about the 
ancients. If a student is ever to get a clear, definite knowledge of 
literary forms and be able to make an intelligent study of English 
and modern literature from a scientific standpoint he must begin 
with Greek. Blot out all references to Greek originals and then 
try to solve the hopeless riddles of our literature. Scrupulously 
lay aside all the records of Greek antiquity and see how blurred 
and dull become the best pages of our poets. The very best con- 
temporary English poetry is perfectly saturated with Greek. As 
Greek is of paramount importance in the study of English litera- 
ture so it is equally important in the study of English as written 
and spoken. Professor Ohilds, formerly professor of English in 
Harvard, used to say : "If you want students to write good Eng- 
lish, let them study Greek." Rufus Choate, the eminent lawyer 
and pleader, was accustomed to translate each day a passage of 
Greek into the best English he could command, that he might be- 
come a more thorough master of his native tongue, and gain a 
more accurate knowledge of those delicate turns and shades of ex- 
pression on which in public speaking so much depends. 

And what are we to say of the value of the Greek language in 
the study of Greek history when our best professors of history tell 
their students that they do not realize how much they lose if they 
do not utilize their opportunities and become able to handle the 
original text. The Persian war — a war that means more to us than 
all the wars of antiquity, for there is not a fibre of our western 
civilization that is not reddened by the blood that was shed at 
Marathon and Salamis — the Persian war must be studied not only 
in the easy and graceful Ionic of Herodotos but also in the mas- 
sive Doric odes of Aischylos. He who would understand the Pel- 
openuesian war and its far-reaching results must read the words 
not only of the terse, cool, calculating Thukydides and the cosmo- 
politan Xenophon, but he must also read him whom Browning calls 
*' our Euripides the human ", as well as turn the pages of the prince 
of all comedians — Aristophanes. Translations will not suflfice 
for a critical and scientific study of history. Translations are al- 
ways inadequate. History demands exactness, but translations are 
necessarily inexact and reflect to a greater or less extent the pecul- 
iar views of the translator. We maintain that one cannot get an 
adequate appreciation of th^t wonderful Greek world without ^ 



12 THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 

knowledge of its language and literature ; and, furthermore, while 
one is broadening his mind and strengthening his intellectual pow- 
ers by putting himself in sympathetic touch with his kinsmen 
across the ocean of centuries he is '^ laying in a stock of wise 
thought and observation " and undergoing a silent yet none the 
less potent influence of perfected and polished literary productions. 
Why do our best scientists take a firm stand in defence of classical 
education ? Why do so many of them urge upon their students 
the necessity and the utility of the study of Greek ? Turn the 
pages of any text-book of Botany, Chemistry, G-eology, or Zoology 
and even a hasty glance will give us an answer. It is because the 
study of Greek enables the student of science to grasp firmly the 
exact meaning of so many modern terms of science and art. The 
scientist cannot get along without Greek if he would not meet with 
difficulties at every turn in word-forms, word-compounds, old and 
new derivatives, scientific termi^nology in general. How many 
students, whose linguistic knowledge is limited to '^ moderns", know 
the exact meaning of even such common terms as telegraph, tele- 
phone, dynamo, or machine ? And when such students meet with 
terms like monochlamydeous, dicotyledon, or even our ISTebraskan 
daimonelix, they stand aghast in utter bewilderment. The techni- 
cal signification of such terms becomes clear to the student of Greek, 
for he grasps the meaning of their component parts. They convey 
to his mind a certain vividness of import which cannot be con- 
veyed to the student who is ignorant of Greek. The classical stu- 
dent stands face to face with the original of these technical scien- 
tific terms, but his unfortunate companion who has no Greek must 
look at them through a colored or almost opaque medium. We 
cannot rid our language of these technical terms that are of Greek 
origin. There are thousands of them. They have come to stay. 
They are bringing hundreds of immigrants to our language-shores 
every year. By the very nature of the Greek language, its plastic 
character, its unmatched facility for making new compounds, it 
has become the greatest store-house from which we enrich our own 
language. If a student would know and understand what think- 
ing people are talking about he must study the language from 
which these terms are derived. But there is also a wider field of 
ilutity as we pass from terms, from words, to subject matter. 
Buffon and Ouvier especially admired Aristotle^s History of Ani- 
mals, and the naturalist of the nineteenth century can still learn 
from him who is the '^master of those who know". The physi- 
cian too may still learn many valuable facts from him who first 



THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 13 

said, " Life is short and art is long " — the physician of Kos, Hip- 
pokrates. 

In this intensely critical age a microscopic examination is being 
made of almost every subject. We now pause and proceed slowly 
step by step with extreme caution over the course where our pre- 
decessors ran at full speed. Even our Christian religion does not 
escape this close criticism. Every word and phrase of original 
Scripture is placed under the most rigid examination. To the 
true scholar and earnest Christian a translation of the holy writ- 
ings is no longer satisfactory. He wishes to be able to read the 
original and answer for himself questions that may arise as to the 
meaning of this or that particular word or sentence. No transla- 
tion can convey the exact import and power of those important 
words of Christ and his apostles spoken and written in the Greek 
tongue. Many are the shades of thought and turns of expression 
that have eluded the translators. It is often truly said " Transla- 
tions cannot be trusted." They blot out the author's characteris- 
tics. They may give the substance, but they lose the soul. 

The greatest difficulty in our western schools and colleges is the 
lack of competent teachers of Creek. The subject itself cannot 
be condemned as impracticable or useless, since, as we know, it 
furnishes the best means of mental discipline and linguistic train- 
ing, and is the basis of a scientific study of modern literature. 
Furthermore it enables the student of science to master technical 
and scientific terms. Let us meet the question squarely. We 
deprecate the subject when there is no ground for censure. The 
blame rests rather with ourselves. It is a case of " Nos, nos con- 
sules desumus." We do not prepare ourselves sufficiently to teach 
the subject successfully. In some respects the greatest injury to 
sound education is caused at the present time by scrap-book knowl- 
edge, undigested bits of facts, which many persuade themselves 
constitute sound learning. A general perusal or skimming of 
many subjects is too often considered a college education. In the 
midst of so much hasty and often imperfect work there is one 
study which, less perhaps than any other, can be hastened or 
merely skimmed. The study of Greek requires and demands care 
and exactness on the part of both teacher and pupil. It calls a 
halt in this rapid march for general ideas and superficial knowledge 
and says " Be critical, be exact, in your thought and in your reason- 
ing." There are some things in education that come only by a 
dead pull, and this is one of them. How many teachers are there 
in Nebraska who are prepared to teach Greek to their students fi? 



14 THE CLAIMS OF GREEK 

a living language fairly instinct with human life, full of a vigorous 
vitality that can be imparted to the student, teeming with that 
deep inner life which every educated man should live ? I fear 
that too many prepare their students in Greek for college as one 
was prepared, or rather unprepared, who told me a few weeks ago 
that before he came to the University of Nebraska he thought the 
study of Greek and Latin consisted in guessing at some kind of a 
translation by thumbing the dictionary and noticing what the 
words looked like. It was a boy with such a preparation who once 
translated the first line of the Aeneid, " There was a man who 
came from Troy with a dog in his arms.'^ There is too much bad 
teaching of both Greek and Latin. No wonder the student cries 
out in rebellion against such treatment. Byron has immortalized 
such teaching in his lines — 

Then farewell Horace ; whom I hated ao, 
Not for thy faults. 

How often would the poor Greeks turn in their graves with a 
groan if they could hear some cold, soulless pedagogue trying to 
teach their literature in the dry grammatical grind, — the con- 
tinual nibbling at the shell, but never giving the student a taste 
of the sweet kernel within. If the teacher does not know the ker- 
nel is there, if he cannot realize that Greek is a living literature, 
possessing a warm and responsive soul, then let him step down and 
out and pose no longer under an assumed name. If he cannot see, 
feel, and present to his pupils the beauty and charm of the Greek 
language, even during the first year that it is studied, then his 
teaching is a curse and he is committing a crime — an educational 
crime. 

To remedy such defects in classical work, to preach the gospel 
of sound education, high ideals, purified taste, is manifestly the 
duty of the classical teachers in our colleges and universities. We 
trust some missionary work is being done here at the University 
of Nebraska to advance the good cause. Out of 175 students of 
Greek here this year we may rightfully expect a trained band of 
young men and young women who will return to their homes after 
graduation and will see to it that better methods and better results 
obtain in the future. 

Meanwhile we have nothing to fear as to the final position of 
Greek in our schools, academies, colleges, and universities when 
our presidents, our professors, our educational leaders have their 
children and relative? take the classical course ; when many of our 
schools^ whose principals and superintendents thought not long 



THE CLAIMS OF GEEEK 15 

ago they could not touch Greek for ten years, are now vying with 
each other as to which can secure the largest Greek classes and do 
the best work. When students are banding together and formally 
asking for instruction in Greek where formerly it was not given, 
one cannot doubt that the rising generation is determined to secure 
the benefits and wear the badge of a classical education. They 
are determined to have that genuine satisfaction which comes to 
every true student who feels that he has bridged the gulf of cen- 
turies and read intelligently some of those literary monuments of 
antiquity which the world has said shall never be consigned to 
oblivion. 

We firmly believe the best minds will always follow the advice of 
Horace : 

Vos exemplaria Graeca 
Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna. 

''Study Greek, study Greek." We feel assured that Greek will 
still keep its place at the head of a liberal education course and 
will continue to bear the title of " facile princeps ". We know that 
all along the line there is a decided recoil from the intense mater- 
ialism caused by too exclusive attention to nothing but science, and 
men are returning to character building, to mind culture, to the 
humanities. 

The great mine of antiquity, of grand and ennobling ideals, is 
by no means exhausted. There we still find a rich store of exper- 
ience ; there we shall continue to learn the lesson of life. As often 
as we choose to visit her shrine the oracle has a new lesson to 
teach us. 

"For out of olde feldes, as men seith, 
Cometh al this newe corn fro yere to yere ; 
And out of olde bokes, in good feith, 
Cometh al this new science that men lere." 



THE 



CLAIMS OF GREEK 



BY 



PROFESSOR LEES 



UNIVER.S1TY OF NEBRASKA 




SYRACUSE, N. Y 

'". W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER 

1896 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 598 532 7 






